World Issues

My participation in world issues has changed my view on the world greatly. When I first started the course I didn’t really look outside of Canada. I focused more on domestic problems, not really caring about the international. World issues changed that. I opened myself up to, well….World issues. I suddenly started caring about not just what was happening around me but about what was happening between Israel and Iran thanks to the Arab-Israeli conflict or the major protests in the Middle East and Northern Africa because of its importance to the human rights and pro-democratic movement. I felt for the people of Japan when the tsunami hit and felt anger and disgust towards Gaddafi when he talked about murdering everyone who rebelling against him. World Issues has changed my way of thinking regarding the world and has helped me understand what really matters. You have to look at the whole picture to really understand it meaning you can’t just focus on domestic issues and assume to comprehend what’s going on, you have to look at what’s happening throughout the earth to really understand the world and all its problems. By understanding what is happening throughout the world you can gain a better comprehension or what’s happening in your country and why through the knowledge of those world issues. A good example of this is the escalation of gas prices. If you just look inside your country you’ll know the obvious, gas prices are rising. But by looking outside the window into the outside world you’ll know that the rise in gas prices is being caused by the mass protests in major oil producing nations like Saudi Arabia. You can’t just read the plot summary on the back of a book and assume you know what it’s about. You have to read the entire book to understand it which is the same with world issues. You have to look around and know what’s happening throughout the world and keep an open mind about it.